Political and Economic Notes
Is the Verdict of Supreme Court on Singur
Land Acquisition a Real victory to Farmers?
In 2006, the CPI (M) led
government had acquired around
1,000 acres of fertile land, from
around 13,000 farmers of Singur
in West Bengal in Hooghly district,
in the name of industrial development
and generating jobs. This land was
leased to Tata Motors Ltd to set up
its Nano cars project.
But the aff ected farm ers
resisted this land acquisition and
fought bitterly to retain their own
lands in their possession. On the
other hand the CPI (M) led
government had forcibly acquired
the said land, duly using all its
coercive power. Even the armed
activists of CPI(M) have acted
ruthlessly against the agitating
farmers fighting for the retention of
their lands.
The resistance of the Singur
farmers has turned in to a political
tussle between CPI(M) and
Trinamool Congress playing a key
role for the electoral success of
MamataBenarjee. On one hand
while the Singur farmers’ agitation
become a symbol of resistance
against land acquisition, on the
other hand it became handy to
MsMamataBenarjee to project
herself as the ‘champion’ of the
cause of farmers besides being
instrumental in fetching governmental power to her. This Singur
agitation of farmers’ has completely
made the CPI(M) party unpopular
and routed its roots of parliamentary
harvesting without any future
hopes of return to governmental
power.
But the question behind the
Singur farmers’ resistance remained
unaltered and unanswered.
Whether the lands of farmers, the
liv ely-hood of farmers in our
18
agrarian based country can be
encroached upon by the state, in
the name of ‘public interest’ or
‘public purpose’, that too in a
system where private property of
an individual is treated as sacred
and supposed to be protected by
the constitution and law is the
question that remained to be
unanswered.
Such questions of fundamental
nature and policy are not being
answered by our higher courts
(High courts and Supreme Court),
when and where such litigations
arose and they are resolving the
disputes according to the legal
‘merits’ of the case based on the
prevalent law and its precedents.
The division bench of High
Court of Calcutta upheld the Singur
land acquisition, agreeing that the
land was acquired “for public
purpose of employment-generation
and socio-economic development
of the region and not in the
interests of conferring benefits on
any private company”.
Though the Tata Company
made certain constructions in the
acquired land, due to the fierce
protests against land acquisition,
it shifted the nano project out to
Sanand, Gujarat, where it was able
to gain more benefits from the
state government of Gujarat.